Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology

Max Planck Research Groups

The Max Planck Research Group on Single Cell Genomics uses single cell genomics data to reconstruct developmental pathways, lineage hierarchies, and tissue heterogeneity in humans. We integrate single cell measurements with signatures of positive selection and comparisons with great apes to understand the molecular mechanisms that define the modern human condition.

Research groups hosted by the institute

Interim group Developmental and Comparative Psychology

The Interim group Developmental and Comparative Psychology investigates cognitive and social-cognitive processes in humans and their nearest primate relatives. Of special interest are the uniquely human cognitive, social-cognitive, and symbolic processes involved in cultural learning and creation.

Junior Research Group of Primate Kin Selection

Understanding the impact of kinship upon the evolution of social behavior is one of the central questions in Behavioral Ecology. Kin selection theory predicts that animals can increase their fitness by allocating more cooperation to kin than to non-kin.

The Cuvette Centrale as Reservoir of Medicinal Plants

Our research of terrestrial biodiversity intends to identify and quantify the flora of specific sites in the Central Congo Basin (Cuvette Centrale) with respect to the historic, current and potential future anthropogenic use. In the long run, identification of these socio-cultural and economic aspects of biodiversity may help to better conserve endangered refuges of local and global significance.

ERC project: The influence of early life experience on later social skills in chimpanzee

In mammals, social bonding success in life impacts on health, survival and fitness. We examine the extent to which early and later social experience, and heritable factors, determine social bonding abilities in adulthood. We examine how variation in social bonding behaviour, and underlying hormonal and cognitive mechanisms, impact on reproductive success in our closest living relatives, chimpanzees.

Former Research groups

The Max Planck Weizmann Center for Integrative Archaeology and Anthropology (MPWC) is an interdisciplinary cooperation between the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (MPI-EVA) in Leipzig, Germany, and the Weizmann Institute of Science (WIS) in Rehovot, Israel. The central goal of the MPWC is to better understand human evolution by drawing on expertise from archaeology, anthropology, biology, physics and material sciences.